


A friend told me...

by Rumoris



Category: South Park
Genre: K2 Secret Santa 2019, Kysterion, M/M, Mentions of alcohol, their usual dumbness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21932335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rumoris/pseuds/Rumoris
Summary: Mysterion did not expect a call in the middle of his private pity-party, especially not from Kyle who was away to celebrate the end of his exams and was expected to arrive past midnight. He also did not expect that he will have to comfort his roommate and guide him home without waking up the entire town.My Secret Santa gift for @madi-artist (tumblr)!
Relationships: Kyle Broflovski/Kenny McCormick
Comments: 13
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Madidraw](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madidraw/gifts).

Being a wannabe superhero whose only special ability is that he was able to return from death infinite amount of times, proved to be one of the most useless skills in the history of heroes. First of all, in order to heal completely, Mysterion had to die. For real. He did not have the super healing skills or invulnerability of an immortal, neither could he instantly return from dead after being killed by a stray bullet. Adding more to the cons, it hurt like hell! No matter how many times he went through it, the pain was just as bad as last time. Furthermore, it took days to return, stirring up extra trouble in his life, adding rumors to his already tarnished reputation!

In short, his power was anything but useful. 

Yet, there he was, sitting atop of a building inspecting the town as people returned home after a tiring day, keeping a watchful eye on those window-shoppers who juggled the trophies from their late night shopping in each hand. Mysterion was used to a different sight, where students and tourists would go around making trips the local bars but... They were strangely absent today. Yes. Come to think of it, Christmas was about to create worldwide chaos, but students all around the country mostly focused on surviving the last few weeks of school and passing their exam with acceptable grades. Their absence was explained by crunch and the will to pass. Nothing strange about that.

Nodding to himself, he closed his eyes.

While Kenny was not living the student’s life, but he was given plenty of second-hand experiences thanks to his roommate. For the past month Kyle Broflovski, med student, kept pacing around their tiny apartment as he kept listing various heart related conditions, Latin words, blood pressure measuring, historical facts and whatnots, while begging him to ask questions whenever they made direct eye-contact. Thanks to this, he had learned more about the human heart than he ever wanted. Kyle even went great lengths to explain him that his heart can’t ache or be in any kind of pain, because this was all just the chain reaction of various chemical substances and triggers afferent nociceptive pain fibres… Or something along the line. Half of the explanation was in Latin and his brain was kind enough to throw the keywords out the window the moment Kyle started going into details. 

However, this also meant that Kyle had no explanation to the feeling that grabbed into his heart whenever the air in their shared apartment grew silent, and Kenny secretly glanced at his roommate, taking mental notes about his appearance, marveling at unruly red curls letting his heart jump each time Kyle moved, as his hands went through his hair, put his reading glasses on or idly chewed on the plastic cap of his cheap blue pen. 

Love was not a medical condition.

Before he could dive deeper into memories, Mysterion forced himself back to reality, focusing his attention on a guy with bright green mohawk who was walking a Russian wolfhound; an expensive breed. They formed an eccentric pair, but he doubted they would step on the road of crime, so he had nothing to do with them.

Down the road a kid nervously looked around, raising some suspicion, but after the second glance he seemed to be wary of a girl who was standing on the opposite side of that road. Mysterion followed them with his eyes, but upon reaching the girl, the boy pulled out a small chocolate bar from his backpack. It might have been a date or some kind. Once again, not a crime that could avert his thoughts.

Sighing to himself, he lay on his back and pulled his cape over himself as he watched how the lights of the city have reflected back from the cloudy skies. Not even criminals are really active around Christmas, and he knows better than to go against every pickpocketer in the area. There were far too many, and it took far too much time to catch all of them. 

“Right, criminals will come out of their hibernation after the holiday, when people lower their defenses and leave every valuable in their living room” he muttered to himself. “Definitely different than Home Alone.”

In a way, boredom should be a crime too. Or making superheroes bored, although he had nothing that would make him eligible for that title. He was just a man wearing a goofy costume, running around, helping people while doing kamikaze stunts and occasionally dying for their sake. Nothing heroic about that. 

Truth to be told, he could be at home, booting up Kyle’s PS4 to use it while he is away or just ask Kevin if he wanted to play some co-op game on his laptop for old times’ sake. But deep down, he knew that it would do more harm than good, and it wouldn’t help to soothe his restless thoughts. Cleaning was also an option, but he would probably make a mess in the process, ruining the order Kyle had set up in their apartment. 

No. None of these would help his case. 

Furthermore, there was a very clear reason why Mysterion sat at the edge of the building, trying to pass as a bigger pigeon.

He was hiding.

And the list of things he wanted to hide away from was quite long. His responsibilities, his dumb decisions, his own feelings and his roommate who was somehow connected to all three. And the easiest way to do that if he did something that required full attention, maybe with an additional muscle work to let out his pent up frustration. 

But nobody needed saving, so he ended up wallowing in self-pity while wearing a close-fitting purple costume, that awkwardly highlighted his body and a cape that went against the recent superhero trends. Same emotional outcome, different outfit. 

What he did not expect was that his phone would start buzzing in the middle of his private pity-party, signaling and incoming call. He sat up as if he was struck by lightning and quickly pulled out the small flip-phone from the rectangular bag on the side of his belt. 

There was only one person in this world who knew this number and that person never called him unless there was an emergency. He hastily cleared his throat and tried to speak in a bit deeper, neutral voice.

“Kyle?”

There was no answer, only the sound of soft sobs. Mysterion could feel his heart stopping for a moment, before he could speak again.

“Hey, is everything alright?”

“Nothing is alright” came the distressed answer. Mysterion could hear slurred words coming from the other side, but they were too quiet. It would be a lie, if he said that he was not scared. No, he was terrified by the thought that Kyle might be in danger, or he might be injured and his thoughts kept spiraling into worse and worse scenarios. 

“Where are you?” he sputtered, his other hand was already opening the door to the staircase.

“Token.”

“Stay there. I’m on my way.” 

“Don’t tell Kenny.” He heard Kyle as the student let out another sob on the other side of the line, before he hung up.

Before he knew it, Mysterion was running through the crowd, trying to fight his way through masses of shoppers and forcefully pulling his cape after himself everytime he got stuck in something. Eventually, his hood fell back, revealing his unruly blond hair and the childish mask that he had tied over his eyes. However, he couldn’t care less. In his mind he was already planning the shortest possible route that would take him to Token’s place. Kyle might be in danger! No time to make an effort and look presentable! 

Before he knew it, Mysterion was already on the narrow street, climbing the steep road that led to Token’s house. His haste eventually avenged itself. After stepping over a frozen puddle, he felt his shoes touch the ground faster than they should have and his side met the cold concrete with a thud and he sprawled out on the ground. As he picked himself up, he blessed every supernatural entity in his vicinity for not landing a fatal blow when someone actually needed him.

Massaging his aching shoulder, he kept going, dragging his legs more sluggishly this time, and pulled his hood back in his eyes.

Token’s house was in the middle of the street, proudly displaying its well-kept small front garden through the high fence. The tips of the fence had small lance-like endings and after looking up at them, Mysterion only saw an opportunity to slip up and die on the spot.

Instead of risking it, he did the most logical step and… Ringed the bell starting a small chain reaction.

The party’s faint humming that shook the walls was interrupted by a loud rhythmic buzz and soon enough a man wearing a chullo appeared at the gate. Looking up and down on Mysterion as if he was about to determine what kind of idiot wanted to get into a private party way after it has begun. However, the next words made Mysterion’s blood freeze in his veins.

“Still playing make believe, McCormick? Or is this actually a fetish of yours?”

But of course. Craig would see through his disguise with ease. Swallowing the will to explain himself, he tried to keep his voice as casual it could be, ignoring the condescending comment Craig threw his way.

“I came to pick Kyle up. Is he…”

“Oh, so it is Kyle’s fetish.” Craig cut in without showing any emotion, whistling at the newfound information. “Had a post-exam meltdown. Downed a half bottle of Jack Daniels, and whatever else he could get his hands on while he ranted in Latin. Clyde had to wrestle another bottle of vodka away from him because none of us wanted to call the ambulance. Then he got hysteric when he was beaten in Munchkin and we are not ready to let him near Exploding Kittens. Want to know anything else?” 

“Could you get him for me?” Mysterion asked. 

“I think it would be better if you talked to him. I’d be so happy if someone would take that idiot home. It was fun for the first few hours, but now he just ruins the mood.” 

Craig’s expression lacked the typical evil smirk, the flash of malice in the eyes, but Mysterion knew that he was about to do a walk of shame only to get his roommate home. Childishly straightening his back, he followed Craig back to the house, awkwardly waving back at other guests, who made remarks about ‘Batman being invited’. He avoided looking around, just turned to Craig.

“Kitchen.” 

Without taking his boots off, Mysterion walked through the house, taking a turn as he arrived to the kitchen. As he opened the door, there was Kyle, resting his head on the dining table, half-eaten gingerbread people forming a disturbing halo around his red curls. Mysterion walked closer towards him, gently putting a hand on his shoulder hoping that Kyle had not fallen asleep in the meantime. 

Thankfully the redhead stir up almost immediately muttering a curse under his breath. As their eyes met, Mysterion expected anything but the words that left Kyle’s lips.

“You are not Kenny,” he said and the disappointment was clearly visible in his voice.

“No. Because you called Mysterion.”

“Oh… Then where is Kenny?”

“Probably at home.” Mysterion lied. “Waiting for you to get home.” 

Kyle blinked at him, processing the information, chewing on it several times as he sluggishly connected Mysterion’s words with his own knowledge.

“That’s bullshit. Ken should be in bed, he has work tomorrow.” 

“And that’s one more reason for you to be home soon, so he can finally go to sleep.” Mysterion gave him faint smile, then bent down to pick up Kyle’s discarded Norwegian sweater from the ground. 

“I don’t want it.” Kyle pushed away Mysterion’s hand. “Too warm.”

“‘course. It is supposed to keep you warm, dumbass. Now get dressed before I call Kenny.” He threw the sweater over the Kyle’s head. 

This seemed to work. Kyle almost immediately sprung up, knocking some of the gingerbread people off the table and hastily pulled his sweater over his head. 

So Kenny was today’s magic word, Mysterion mused to himself as he led his roommate through the house, back to the entrance where they played a similar game but with shoes and coats and with a final goodbye, they were off into the night. 

\- - -

As they walked home, Kyle was surprisingly silent as if going straight took up all his attention. He fixed his eyes on the side of the street, where a vertical line run alongside the pavement and tried to walk next to it with more or less luck. Sometimes his body did a sudden turn, or he lost balance, but before his legs could buckle under him, Mysterion was right next to him and prevented the fall. Eventually Kyle’s hand found his own, linking their gloved fingers together.

In any other cases, this would take Kenny to cloud nine, but as Mysterion there was a mildly unsettling feeling pooling in his stomach. Mysterion was nothing but a mask, the part of him that buried the problems of Kenneth McCormick in order to sacrifice his well-being for the public. If Kyle were to fall for _him_, the mask that concealed his fears, worries and problems, he would surely have a problem accepting the person beneath the mask. After all, they never really got past the friendship-phase and it would also mean that Kyle wishes to be with his unproblematic version. 

When he couldn’t take the way his own thoughts fought their way through the silence, trying to suffocate him, Kenny decided to strike up a conversation.

“You are awfully quiet today.”

“Yeah... It feels wrong,” Kyle told him, never taking his eyes off the dark grey line in the pavement. “You holding my hand, walking me home, just generally caring for me. It feels wrong. Off. Unnatural. Whatever... I like you, but not the way I like someone else.”

“You mean Stan?” Kenny tried to guess helplessly, be he found himself unable to let go of Kyle’s hand. Rejection was still rejection, even if it was only meant for the cool-side of him.

“Stan was at the party and laughed at me, so no. It is most definitely not Stan.” he let out a small laugh, as they took another turn and the smile never left his lips. “You probably don’t even know him because he does not really get into trouble, so you hardly had a chance to meet him. He is just like that.”

“Try me,” Mysterion told him, pulling Kyle back by his arm when he was about to cross the street without looking around. Deep down, he was scared of the answer he might get, but at the same time there was this unique curiosity. This was the one and only time to find out a secret Kyle kept hidden deep within his innermost thoughts. 

The act itself was selfish, so terrible selfish. These gates were opened thanks to the enormous amount of alcohol, not because Kyle was willing to give out his deepest secrets. 

“Well,” Kyle started gesturing with his hand, “First of all he is clever even if he says that he is not, but believe me that guy has more brains than most people, I know. He even learned cardiac muscles in Latin! That is _something_! Then empathy and com... comp… Ah, yes, compassion! But he thinks he is not good at anything, because he grew up in a poor family and as kids we used to tease him about it. But Mysterion that is bullshit!”

At this Mysterion gently guided him away from the pole he was about to bump into. He did not like the direction of their talk and regretted the moment when he thought that being selfish would be a good idea. It was never a good idea, and now his heart came close to rupturing thanks to Kyle’s innocent rambling. 

He couldn’t do anything but wear a tight lipped expression as the redhead went on and on about someone who could have been him. He had his doubts, after all nothing says he is the only poor person Kyle knows...

However, before he could have tossed himself into deeper despair, Kyle’s expression changed, and tears started pooling in his eyes, a clear sign that the alcohol finally destroyed all of his defenses and enlarged his problems to a hundredfold. 

“Fucking heart,” came a sob out of the blue as he stopped in his tracks. “I hate it, I hate how I have to learn everything about it but I can’t do anything about it. Why do humans have hearts, Mysterion? Why do I have to learn about them? I don’t want to deal with other hearts I have enough problem with mine as it is and I don’t even have a known cardiovascular disease! At least if I had a heart attack I’d know what to do! But now it feels like I have arrhythmia, cerebrovascular accident and myocardial infarction, all at the same time!”

He sobbed, helplessly looking at Mysterion, who only nodded once he translated it to a more human language. Knitting his brows together, he pulled the sobbing student closer, hoping that this would easy his stress at least a little. 

“If you had all three, you would be dead by know,” he answered in all seriousness.

“Sometimes I wish I was…”

“Don’t you dare to say that,” Mysterion warned him, guiding his arms around Kyle to pull him into a hug, but he could not stop the words from flowing out Kyle’s mouth.

“But I dare to say that! He helped me so much and sacrificed his time only to help my dumb ass learn all the muscles of the heart and then I can’t even pass the fucking exam and he is waiting for me at home and how will I go home saying that I have failed and I have to retake the exam in January?!”

“Just like this,” Mysterion answered matter of factly. 

“I don’t want him to see me like this,” Kyle admitted. 

_You are a bit late with that, _Mysterion thought to himself, rubbing Kyle’s back with his gloved hand. He needed to get Kyle home as soon as possible. 

“Then you should stop crying over nothing,” sighing, he reached in for the bag attached to his belt, and pulled out several paper tissues, pushing them into Kyle’s hand.

“I called you because of that. I wanted to call Kenny, but what would I say to him now? That I failed him?! I made him suffer for nothing?” he cried as he blew his nose.

“Something tells me all he wants is to see you safe and he wouldn’t mind helping you with the next exam” with this, he gently patted the redhead on his back, and pulled away. 

Was Kyle over-exaggerating and overdramatizing everything? Yes, absolutely. Kenny would never be angry with him over a failed exam. Sure, he would be worried, because Kyle was famous for overworking himself and pulling all-nighters after all-nighters until he became totally unusable on the day of the exam and a failed exam would only make things worse for him. But would he demand an explanation like his mother did when they were young? Not a chance.

Even after he seemingly calmed the student, the tears found their way to his eyes again as he kept bawling over nothing. However, by this time he arrived to the opposite side of the same coin.

“I fucked this one up, right? I should have called him.” 

“Then you would be crying over making Kenny walk the trip from your house to Token’s and back,” Mysterion explained. All he needed was Kyle to call his regular number when he can’t take the call. That would surely start another flood of tears and word-diarrhea!

“But now it feels like I am cheating on him,” Kyle countered. “I don’t want to cheat on him!”

“You can’t cheat on someone you are not dating,” Mysterion tried to calm him down, but unknowingly he waltzed right into a pit. Kyle looked at him with an expression that told everything was collapsing and there is no way to save the situation. The fog of alcohol seemed the drag forward everything he had kept hidden in the closet, and presented the naked truth to Mysterion without trying to be discrete about it.

“But I want to date him,” Kyle told him between tears.

Mysterion felt as if his entire body was dipped into ice cold water that rapidly became hotter and hotter around him. Playing around with the hem of his deep purple cape, he looked at Kyle his lips trembling slightly. Did he hear it right or was Kyle so drunk that he started mixing up people in his mind? Because there was no way Kyle would date Kenny. Not in a hundred years. He was far too perfect for someone like him and there is no way in hell Kyle would ever be interested.

And yet…

“You mean Kenny McCormick?” his voice slipped out of its usual fake deepness. Part of him was hoping Kyle was thinking of someone else.

“Yes. Do you know him?”

“Only from secondhand stories.” Mysterion laughed awkwardly, as he urged Kyle to continue their journey home, then with all seriousness he added, “Are you sure you want to date him? He seems like trouble.”

“Kenny? No way! I am the one who lives with him,” Kyle argued with Mysterion, angrily poking his chest, before the vigilante could have started arguing. “Don’t even dare to say anything about him being the bad guy, because he is not! He deserves the best of everything! And I’ll fight you if you say the opposite! I might even become your arch-nemesis!”

With a warning, Kyle turned around and tried to stomp away from Mysterion in a hurry, however thanks to the insane amount of alcohol, his steps became uncertain and his legs occasionally shaking under his weight. 

On the other hand Mysterion just stood there, dumbfounded and shell-shocked by Kyle’s poorly disguised declaration of love. Suddenly so many things made sense about their shared time. The way Kyle leant into him whenever he got to play on his PS4. The small compliments. The unnecessary gifts he had brought for him. Every small deed was actually a puzzle piece Kyle had left for him on the road, hoping that Kenny would eventually collect enough and see the full picture. The problem lie with the fact, that Kenny had no idea what kind of picture should he put together from said pieces and even when he did, he refused to look at the full picture.

He discarded the pieces into a small box and sealed them away. 

“You should tell him,” he said at least after he caught up with Kyle.

“I don’t think I can. What if he says no and moves out of my life? I don’t want to lose my best friend just because I couldn’t keep it in my pants.”

_Oh don’t worry your bestie has the same problem,_ Kenny thought to himself bitterly. 

“Call it a hunch, but I think he would be on cloud nine if you posed this question to him,” Mysterion continued, but he couldn't hide the tiny smile that appeared on his lips. “He is probably thinking the same. That he would ruin your friendship if he took a step forward.”

Kyle grew silent, looking at the ground in front of him, furrowing his brows as he tried to unearth a long forgotten memory. Suddenly, there was a small on his tear-stained face.

“Maybe you are right… Yes.” At this he blew his nose again, then stared at the hero with the look that said he’d just remembered something important. “Look, Mysterion, don’t tell him this, but a year ago, he went out with his friends to celebrate a birthday or something.” Oh, yes Kenny remembered that day. “Then I woke up to someone slipping into my bed and clumsily trying to spoon with me. Haha. Eventually he just threw his arm and leg over me and by the time I had a chance to say something, he was out cold…!” Kenny did not remember that part of the day. Well, Kenny did not remember anything from the rest of the night, to be honest. 

“He did what?” he asked awkwardly but Kyle only laughed at the memory.

“He did what I said. I had to drag him to the couch, so he would not get freaked out about it. But now… Now it makes sense!”

Was this the time when he found his pants in Kyle’s room and he had no idea how it’d ended up in there in the first place? Yes. This must’ve been it. He usually slept in his underwear, so when he arrived to Kyle’s room, he just did what he usually did in his own room. And if Kyle was to be believed about the spooning part... How embarrassing… 

Taking a deep breath, he led Kyle to the entrance of the house, helped him to get his keys before he decided it was time to act and turn tails. 

“Kyle, listen to me. Since we cracked the code, tell him,” he put his hand on the other man’s shoulder, cheeks going redder and redder by the moment. “I know it from a friend, that he loves you more than anything, so your feelings are definitely not unrequited, but for the love of god, be more… explicit with him because he can’t see the forest behind the tree and there is no way he will ever have the courage to do anything about his own feelings...”

“So, would you like to go on a date with me?” Kyle asked and Mysterion could feel a heart attack coming.

“No, not me.” he laughed awkwardly as he pushed the keys in Kyle’s palm. “But ask this from the right person and he will say yes.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. Now get inside before you get a frostbite and I fail as a hero.” Mysterion was about to close the door behind Kyle, when the man turned around, shock clearly visible in his green eyes.

“Wait, what if I forget about it?”

“Write it down on your palm or something. Now, goodnight, Kyle.”

With this he finally closed the door, and made a mad dash towards the side of the building and started climbing up to their second floor balcony, using the fire-ladder, then making a leap of faith to the side and hoping that he won’t fluke his only chance with Kyle. He basically somersaulted into the living room and started to get undressed as he ran through the apartment, while quickly collecting the pieces of garments he’d almost left behind. Kyle probably would not notice, Mysterion’s boots and gloves lying around in the darkness, but he was not going to risk an accidental unmasking. 

He dropped Kyle’s keys around the kitchen. He might get some time until he realizes that he had “lost” them. Tapped the remote controller for the tv to provide some background noise and an alibi.

Now wearing only boxers, on his way to his room while clutching his clothes, he quickly turned on the television as a decoy. He had only moments before Kyle climbs up to the second floor!

Kenny quickly kicked the clothes under his bed and in the darkness he dragged a shirt out from his closet. And almost fell over when he tried to get his legs into his jeans and the doorbell started ringing. Kyle realized that he doesn’t have a key.

He rushed towards the door, realizing that he had forgot to take off his mask, he quickly pulled it off and jammed it into one of the nearest drawers. 

Was he ready to face Kyle? No. Absolutely not. But he had to do it, especially because he locked him out of their own home. He forced a casual expression on his face as he turned the keys in the lock only to have the air knocked out of his lungs. 

That was the obvious sign that Kyle reached the last stage of his drunken stupor: clinging to people like a devoted octopus.

“Ken, remind me to tell you something really important tomorrow. Something that is not about cardiovascular diseases.” He rambled as they slowly waltzed farther away from the door.

“Tomorrow as in when you wake up, or the day after today?” Kenny asked as he tried to pry Kyle off of himself. The closeness was definitely not unwelcomed, but it very much felt like he was taking advantage of Kyle’s state of mind.

“Just tomorrow.”

“Just tomorrow, then.” Kenny nodded to him, gently holding him by the shoulders and guiding Kyle to his bed. Pulling the shoes off Kyle’s feet, while the other weakly protested, muttering something about wanting to watch youtube because there is a stream he wanted to catch, but all of these were lost in the background noise coming from the tv. 

He heard Kyle call after him when he stood up to get their hangover kit (including a bucket and a glass of water), however, by the time he got back, Kyle was already sprawled on the top of his bed, as if he sat up then changed his mind. Kenny tried to shoo away the negative thoughts as he pulled him back to his side, and made sure that the mopbucket is within an arms reach, before he went back to the living room and turned on the PS4.

Even if he had a shift to survive tomorrow, right now, he desperately needed something to take off his thoughts from the upcoming confrontation that would happen in the morning.

Knowing that his feelings were not unrequited and that Kyle would probably welcome his advances was the type of information he did not expect when he took the call that evening. But the indirect and desperate confession of love made him realize just how stupid and blind they were and how much it hurt for both of them to exist in the same closed space with zero progress in their relationship.

However, now that the cat was out of the bag, it was up to him to catch it and break this awkward cycle of their silent suffering and he would be lying if he said that his heart did not ran a marathon at the thought dating Kyle Broflovski.


	2. The Aftermath

In the end Kenny did what he usually does whenever he can’t get a wink of sleep and needs a way to just turn off his thoughts and eventually turned to a rhythm game where he needed to do ridiculous extra tasks for full trophy completion. It helped. His mind quickly focused all of his attention on the screen, feet tapping the rhythm of the music that kept urging the protagonist to dance forward and slash the monsters that got in the way.

Kyle stirred around half past five. Kenny could hear the awful sounds as everything he had put into his body came back to haunt Kyle. He wanted to jump to his feet and rush to Kyle, but at the same time he was wiser than to disturb him in the moment of vulnerability. Instead, he leant forward and unpaused his game, focusing on jumping at the tune that continued in the background. From the corner of his eyes, Kenny could see something blue entering his periphery, but the bathroom door soon shut behind the form with a loud thud.

He heard a flush.

The sounds of Kyle washing his teeth...

Then the unmistakable sound of the shower mixed with the soundtrack of the game, until the door opened again and Kyle waltzed back to his room, seemingly wearing only a towel around his torso. However, Kenny kept his focus on the game, not missing a beat as he let Kyle lick his wounds from the previous night.

Eventually the door opened and this time, he dared to look his way, only to be greeted with the pale shadow of his flatmate. Kyle managed to get dressed and now he was wearing a plain red shirt and sweatpants, a rare combination of clothes only Kenny was allowed to see. Everyone else was cursed for jeans and more mature looks.

Without speaking a word, the redhead dragged himself to the couch, lifted Kenny’s legs as if they were barriers at a train crossing, then settled on the couch and lowered them over his lap.

Kyle could only sigh as he melted into the soft furniture, watching Kenny do laps around a Minotaur.

“Say, did I do anything uncharacteristically stupid yesterday?” he asked Kenny at last, closing his eyes to keep the light out.

“Just announced infinite happy hour at Token’s party,” Kenny shrugged wearing a smile, while he tried to be as casual as it was humanly possible.

“No naked dancing on the table?” he sighed, while he massaged his temple. 

“You would make me delete those pictures, so nope. So let’s just say, you mostly danced in your clothes.”

“Pervert…” he mumbled, then let out an irritated groan. “Why do I have a feeling that he won’t invite me to his new year’s party?” Kyle laughed to himself.

“You were not THAT insufferable. Maybe they will invite you if you bring your own booze,” Kenny smiled at him and took his time to take a good look at his friend. He went completely still under his legs, fighting with the migraine he’d brought upon himself. For a moment, Kenny was tempted to ask just how much did he drank, before he went into a lengthy rant about hearts and love.

He decided to turn back to the game on screen and focused on guiding his character through a colorful disco mine. He halfheartedly expected Kyle to make comments about the volume and the colours disturbing his eyes, but the student just rested his head on the back of the couch, occasionally taking a deep breath to get his nausea under control.

“You are awfully quiet... Are you still alive?” Kenny nudged his side with his toe, making Kyle wince from the sudden contact.

“Stop!” he shooed away the sock from his side and pushed it back to his lap. “My head is about to blow up, why should I be loud?”

“Well, you usually can’t stop complaining about it, but now you are just sitting there in silence…“

Thinking about something, he added in his mind.

The song ended in the background and Kenny could hear Cadence fall to the next level, but his attention was on Kyle and every small movement he had made.

“And you hardly ever ask questions like this,” their eyes met as Kyle finally raised his head. “Ken, be honest with me, did I do anything stupid last night? Something you are refusing to tell me?”

“What gives you the thought?” Kenny shrugged, but only dug an even deeper hole for himself. Kyle was onto something now and he was only questions away from realizing that he indirectly confessed his feelings to a stranger.

“You ask more questions. You tend to do that when you want to find out if I know something that I should not know.” Kyle smirked, before resting his head again, massaging his temple. “On top of that I made it home somehow… So either you or someone else escorted me, because no way in hell could I make the trip from Token's house alone.”

Detective Broflovski was onto him and for a person who could not put two and two together to realize that Mysterion is actually his best friend, he made several good remarks in the short span of time.

“Do you want some water?” he asked weakly.

“And now you want to detour the topic,” Kyle noted. “But yes, water might be good. Just get back soon because I need my leg blanket.”

Kenny couldn’t help but let out a snort on the last comment “So am I only that to you? A legblanket?”

“You are what you make yourself to be,” Kyle murmured nervously as the warmth disappeared from his tights. Before he knew it, someone had out a glass of water on the coffee table in front of him and the comforting weight was back on him.

Kenny did not speak a word at first. He went back to the game as if nothing had happened, controlling his character to slay a dragon that jumped alongside the rhythm of the song. He wanted to bring up their little talk at night and maybe just maybe, gently nudge Kyle towards realizing the type of confession he had angrily shared with Mysterion. Instead, he decided to play it cool.

“So, what do I have to do to level up from legblanket?” he threw the question towards Kyle as the boss mercilessly chased him around a room. He felt Kyle’s body tense up beneath him and when Kenny looked at him from the corner of his eyes, he swore he could see him holding back his breath.

“Well, for starters, I don’t think you have to do anything drastic,” Kyle forced out the words at last and quickly reached for the water. “But if you could do something with my hangover, that would help your case in more than one way.”

“You are the med student,” Kenny smiled knowingly, but never took his eyes off the screen.

“Haha, very funny,” Kyle laughed, “I hope your sense of humor won’t disappear the next time you come to me whining because you self-diagnosed yourself after reading badly researched articles.”

“That happened only once because you left me on read! I was suffering!”

“Yes. And I was in the middle of an exam.”

There was a misstep. A dark skeleton jumped on his character and before Kenny knew it, the familiar white game over screen swam into the picture, mocking him for making an amateur’s mistake. Without realizing it, he played right into Kyle’s sneaky ways to switch topics and now they were suddenly talking about exams. Just how did this guy put his defenses up so high?

It was strange. The whole situation was strange and frustrating and Kyle was giving up more mixed signals than ever. What was real and what was faked? Kenny had a hard time differentiating between them.

There they were. Enjoying physical contact, laughing at the other's misery, while trying to dance around a topic that was far too embarrassing to be brought up.

Furthermore, there was something in Kyle’s acting that seemed terribly off to Kenny.

“Are you sure you don’t remember anything from last night?” he sat up on the couch, keeping his legs over Kyle’s lap as the thumping noises continued when his character was transported back to the lobby.

And there was his cue. The moment he was back on road, asking questions about Kyle’s actions the redhead forced a smile to his lips.

“I drank a lot,” he lied.

“But you never drank yourself into amnesia,” Kenny tried. Yes. They were going into that territory…

“There is always a first time for everything,” he countered, quickly raising the glass of water to his lips even though it barely had any water left in it.

“There was something you wanted to tell me yesterday,” Kenny started as he stood up and took the empty glass from Kyle. On his way to their small kitchenette, he continued. “Something important that is not about cardiovascular diseases.”

“Ah yeah, I failed the exam,” Kyle answered almost too soon. “Sorry. I know you suffered a lot because of it, but when I pulled a theme I completely misunderstood the question and I mixed up years and--”

Kenny pushed the glass back into his hands, and this time sat right beside Kyle, even closer than before.

“That is still belongs to cardiovascular diseases,” He warned Kyle with a sigh. Mysterion help him… “ I have a friend who told me to ask you--”

“Mysterion ratted me out?! I can’t believe that guy!” Kyle groaned, but his headache quickly pulled back from list all known curses. Instead, he slumped back to the couch face getting redder and redder as he sipped on his water.

“He kind of did,” Kenny smiled awkwardly. “But I’d like to hear the details from you,”

He expected Kyle to try and escape from the situation. Maybe drop in another topic or ask for the controller to try his luck in the dungeon, instead, he just stared at his glass, as if he was trying to find answer in spoonful of water.

“I can’t do this,” he mumbled eventually and Kenny swore that his problem was that he did not want to ruin their friendship or something more serious, but clutching the glass in his hand, Kyle continued. “It always looks so much easier in movies. Someone takes the first step for the protagonist and all they have to do is to answer a simple question and credits roll.”

“I’d rather not have credits in our life,” Kenny laughed. “And I’d ask you, Ky. But there are so many things on stake just because of one sentence…”

The look Kyle gave him told everything. The disappointment, the hurt, but Kenny also saw a tiny glint of hope as he waited for that short question. Kenny opened his mouth, trying to push words forward, but as he watched Kyle, he felt them stop on his lips.

“This feels a bit cheap compared to movies, ain’t it?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Well, no music, no montage of us being sad and miserable, no arguing that could send our pants to the ground. Years of pinning will end with a nod and we just continue with our day...”

“And even if we do say something, it will have the most anticlimactic beginning in the history of relationships.” Kyle agreed. “But… I still want to date you regardless of not having a confession scene straight out of a shitty romcom.”

“Even with no music or sex accompanied with fireworks right after the confession?” Kenny suggested, wiggling his eyebrows. “Because this friend also told me that you really want to pin me to the nearest wall.”

“Sure, I could do that. But it is not a recommended action unless you really want me to puke on you in the process…” Kyle massaged his temple as he drank the last drops of water from his glass. This migraine was really persistent on making his life a living hell. Really. Just how much did he drink yesterday?

“Can I at least give you a kiss?” Kenny tried, already shifting his weight closer to the point where he could feel the comforting heat radiating from Kyle’s body.

“A small one. And do not try to test it… I was not kidding about puking.”

“Roger.”

Leaning forward was the easiest part. Keeping the kiss ‘small’ was where Kenny really started to show signs of a struggle. Especially after his hand wandered onto Kyle’s tights and his other hand found its way to the boy’s face, slowly guiding him even closer. In their silence, the rhythm of the game softly reverberated in the air, quietly encouraging them to go even further, take braver actions, and Kenny was about to listen to its whispers and tried to shift his body closer, when he felt Kyle’s hand slowly reach for his own, gently pushing him away.

Probably seeing the disappointment on his face Kyle gave him a tired smile, and pulled him back for a chaste kiss.

“You don’t want me to puke in your mouth, do you?”

“Well, it would be the perfect revenge after your mother made me spit into your mouth. But no. I’m not so keen on experiencing that,” Kenny laughed but he refused to lean back into his previous laying position on the couch. “What about my hand? Can that stay at least?” he asked, nodding towards his other hand which still rested on Kyle’s leg, as he reached for the controller.

“It can stay as long as it knows how to behave,” Kyle sat back, heaving a suffering sigh. “But you won’t be able to play that way.”

Kenny could only laugh. “It’s a good thing that I’m very good with my hands! Besides, out of all people you should be the one who does not underestimate my skills. Might even show you a few tricks later.”

“Only to prove a point, I assume.” Kyle smirked at him before closing his eyes.

“Yep. To prove a very good point,” Kenny nodded leaning against Kyle side pulling his feet back on the other side of the couch as he resumed the colorful pixelated game on the screen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it only took me... Six months to publish this beauty. But now it is finished! 
> 
> The game Kenny played was Crypt of the Necrodancer and I think it wouldn't be impossible to do a one-handed run if he exluded items. I think the PSP incident proves that he is capable of anything, so I have the feeling he managed to beat at least one boss, before his miracle-making fingers cramped up.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas! Originally I wanted this thing to be short, on to the point, and before I knew it they boys ran off with it, so the final conclusion might take some extra days, but it is already in the work, I just did not expect that inspiration (and the need to write fluff) will hit me so hard! 
> 
> I really enjoyed writing this fic, that started as a tiny drabble then kept going farther and farther...! Also I had fun looking up various heart related terms.
> 
> Many thanks to Stars for reading this before I had the courage to post it! ;;


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